Ball-bearing.



H. HESS. BALL BEARING.

APPLICATION FILED APR. 27, 1906.

951,244. Patented Mar. 8, 1910.

UNITED s'rA HENRY HESS, or PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

' BALL-BEARING.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 8, 1910.

Application filed Apri1 27, 1906. Serial No. 313,975.

' will be fully pointed out hereafter in connection' with a detaileddescription, reference being had to the accompany ng drawing whichillustrates an exemplifying struc ture in which my invention isembodied, and in which Figure 1 is a transverse sectional view of asegment of the bearing; Fig. 2, a section taken on a radial plane; Fig.8, a plan view of the separator, Fig. 4, a fragmentary view of a blankfrom which the separator-may be conveniently formed; and Fig. 5 is anend view of the complete bearing with the separators in place.

In the drawings, 1 is an inner bearing ring and 2 an outer bearing ringprovided with ball races 3 and 4: respectively; 5, a suitable number ofballs in the races; the foregoing constituting a typical ball'bearing.In the present exemplification it is of the nonadjustable ring type; butmy invention is applicable to a wide variety of bearings and the exactform of the same is therefore notessential. The invention may, forinstance, be applied to adjustable bearings, in many cases.

7 is the general designation of a separator interposed between twoadjacentballs' It consists generally of sheet spring metal and isconveniently formed from a fiat blank such as shown in Fig. 4. In itscompleted form it comprises two wings 6 extending be tween the twoadjacent balls in a direction generally parallel with the axis of thebearing, and each provided at each end with a notch 8, preferably of theshape of a segment of a. circle. These notches engage the balls andprevent accidental displacement of blanks.

the -separator. The separator is so proportioned that the notches 8contact with the balls witha slight pressure and tend to return theballs to their normal relative posi-.

tions if displaced therefrom. Under certain conditions of operation inball bearings, one ball tends at times to run at a speed different fromthat of its neighbor, and in such a case, supposing the balls in Fig. .1to tend to approach each other, the surface. of the ball contacting withthe notches 8, acts as a wedge and forces the wings 6 slightly apart,permitting the necessary relative movement of the balls. The angle'a ofthe arc. em-

braced by the wings 6 is such as to permit' the balls to exercise thiswedge action without too great pressure upon the separator members.Attention is called to the fact that each of these separators isconveniently and cheaply formed from a single piece. of metal and istherefore of great simplicity.

It is self-adjusting, and should there be any wear, will automaticallycompensate therefor. In addition to performing the function ofpermitting relative movement of the balls as described. the separatoralso renders the bearing noiseless by preventing clicking of the ballstogether.

In many cases itis desired to have the separators each entirelyindependent of the other. Such independent separators are designated inFigs. 1 and 2 by the character 7. It will be readily understood bycomparison with Fig. 1- how these independentseparators may be formedout of suitable In other cases, however, it is desirable to interconnectthe separators. This may be done by attaching them individually I to asuitable ring, or they may all be made integrally from a single piece ofsheet metal,

such as is shown in Fig. 4-. In this construction the individualseparators are joined by parts 9 of the blank, and when the separator iscompleted it has the general shape ofv a ring as shown in Fig. 5.

Many variations from the structures described will occur to thoseversedin the art, and I contemplate any possible variations within thespirit of my invention as well as the structures herein shown.

What I claim. is: being curved to approximately conform to A se aratoradapted to be inserted between one of the races. a 10 twoa jacent ballsin an annular ball bear- In testimony whereof I have aflixed my inghaving bearing rings provided with races signature in the presence oftwo witnesses.

5 of curved cross section, consisting of a piece HENRY HESS.

sheet metal having a web and two flanges, Witnesses: the flan es beingnotched to engage seg- Tnno. H. MCALLA ments 0 the balls, and one of theflanges C. L. MCALLA.

